Saturday, July 14, 2012

There's a huge party at C.I.'s tonight. I think we're all grabbing any time we can to blog.

I'm not a big Danny Schechter fan -- I used to be -- but I will applaud this column he wrote. It's very good and you should read it if you haven't already.

Today we went to San Diego to see some of the Comic-Con.

I wasn't dying to do that. I wanted to but I wasn't dying to. And that article where Joshua Jackson and other actors in struggling TV shows thought they were doing the world a favor by showing up didn't make me want to go.

But I'm glad we did and glad we took our daughter because she had a blast. She loved all the dress up and loved looking around. She could have stayed there all day and all night.

I'm not a Matt Damon film but I think I'll see his next movie. It's really Jodie Foster's film. But they showed a trailer -- is it a trailer if it's over five minutes? does that make it a 'sneak peak?' -- and Elisum or whatever it's called looks like it's going to be a really exciting film.

I almost went to a panel on Walking Dead but I don't care enough to waste my time on something that I don't even watch at the house. (I tried 2 episodes.)

Mainly we looked at comic books. My daughter likes colors. She really seems to make her selections based on that more than drawings or text or whatever.

We got back to C.I.'s late (party had already started) and my daughter just wanted her comics and wanted them then. Which was fine. I'm sure I was the same way as a kid.

But there are some stories -- when you read them to her -- that she's interested in and some that she's not (and she'll tell you) and it's clear that the only connection to the comics she picked was the really colorful.

Oh, we got some Ms. Marvel comics. Vintage.

She saw those and like the ones near the end of the title's run (the all black costume with, I think, a red belt). So since she liked those, I bought some other issues of the title and hopefully, she'll like those too.

Friday,
July 13, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, the US Government
Accountability Office has bad news regarding Iraq, the political crisis
continues, Bradley Manning gears up for another pre-court-martial
hearing, Dr. Jill Stein appears to be on the eve of becoming the Green
Party presidential nominee, and more.

Alsumaria reports
today that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed
his concern over the continued political crisis in Iraq and how they
hinder efforts at progress within the country. The Secretary-General
made these remarks in a report handed over to the United Nations'
Security Council. Also noting the impasse is Sheikh Abudl Mahdi
al-Karbalai, a representative for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Al Mada reports the Sheikh declared at Friday morning prayers that the Iraqi politicians are unaware of the way the people suffer.

Now
that he is back in Iraq, Sadr is positioned to play a key role in the
next elections. In the midst of a contest for power among Sunnis, Kurds
and Shiites that has created political gridlock in Iraq, Sadr has joined
with Kurdish and Sunni parties in opposing Prime Minister Nuri Kamal
al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite. But he has to tread carefully to avoid
alienating the devout Shiites who form his main base of support. "The
Sadr movement and its durability is something that surprised everybody
at first," Duss continued. "Sadr has been written off and counted out
countless times since the invasion. He has had his ups and downs. But
the fact is that his movement is based upon poor urban Shiites, of whom
there are many in Iraq, and as long as he is speaking to and serving
that constituency, he is going to continue to have an important
political role in Iraq."

This as Al Mada reports
the Kurdistan Alliance MP Mahma Khalil is stating that Nouri's State
of Law doesn't want to solve the crisis which is why it has made one
threat after another -- early elections, dissolve Parliament, dismiss
Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi. Meanwhile Iraqiya states State
of Law uses intimdation in an attempt to get their way. Dar Addustour notes that al-Nujaifi met with Nouri al-Maliki Thursday night.

Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports
on how the Parliament's sessions are often televised but, even so, not
everything is televised. For example, one MP shares that they are often
briefed on a bill -- whether it's legal, whether it's sound -- by
specialists in the area and these briefings do not get televised. Some
bills are withdrawn and those actions are not televised. One MP feels
that everything should be before the public. Others feel there is too
much information being televised while some argue that the experts and
specialists appearing before the Parliament to brief them on the bills
are unnecessary because the bills result form deals and agreements
within Parliament and they don't need any advice with regards to that. Kitabat notes
that it was announced yesterday that 100 MPs will work on drafting a
law to limit the three presidencies -- Prime Minister, Speaker of
Parliament and Iraqi President -- to two terms only. Gorran (Change) the struggling third party in the KRG tells Al Mada that they have no position on the issue of term limits.

Violence
can take many forms especially when Nouri remains unable to provide
security. Today it's a bomb attack, tomorrow is tainted water. Al Mada reports
Iraqiya MP Nahida Daini is calling out the promoters of "food
terrorism," vendors selling food and beverages that are not safe for
human consumption. The article notes that March 23, 2011 hundreds of
tons of damaged food stuffs were discovered in Diyala Prvoince. Alsumaria reported June 30th (2012) that workers of the Ministry of Health had confiscated over 33 tons of harmful food in Kirkuk Province.

In
addition to potential problems, there are also current health problems
that Iraqis face. One of the latest is, thus far, unexplained. A
series of people are going blind. Al Mada reports
that the Medical College of the University of Dhi Qar has issued an
apology over its failure to participate in the investigation of the
recent cases of blindness. The college states it's unable to
participate at this time. Last week, Dar Addustour reported
that six people in Nasiriyah, while undergoing eye exams, were exposed
to some form of bacteria that is still unknown at this time but that
resulted in their being blinded. The number of people who have been
blinded has now risen to 9.

Today the US Government Accountability Office released [PDF format warning] "IRAQ: U.S. Assistance to Iraq's Minority Groups in Response to Congressional Directives."
According to the report, through November 2011, the US taxpayer has
footed the bill for $40 million which was supposed to go towards
assisting Iraq's minority population. [The report breaks down the $40
million as follows: "According to the agencies, USAID provided $14.8
million for the 2008 directive, USAID and State provided $10.4 million
for the 2008 supplemental directive; and State provided $16.5 million
for the 2010 directive."] Since Iraq's population is estimated by the
CIA to be 31 million, the US government could have skipped the minority
issue and given a million dollars to every Iraqi. So the GAO just
completed a 12 month audit (June 2011 to July 2012) to see if USAID
was living up to the outlines of Congress' 2008 directive?

Are they?

No one knows. USAID didn't pass the audit. The report notes:

Our
analysis of USAID documents found that USAID could not demonstrate that
it met the provisions of the 2008 directive because of three
weaknesses. First, although USAID reported that it provided $14.8
million in assistance to minority groups through existing programs to
meet the 2008 directive, its documents could link only $3.82 million (26
percent) of that amount to the Ninewa plain region. The documents
linked $1.67 million (11 percent) of the assistance to areas outside of
the Ninewa plain region. USAID documents did not provide sufficient
detail to determine the location of the remaining $9.35 million (63
percent).Second, USAID documents generally did not show
whether the projects included minority groups among the beneficiaries of
the assistance and whether $8 million was provided specifically for
internally displaced families. According to USAID officials, the agency
generally did not track its beneficiaries by religious affiliation. For
$14.7 million of the $14.8 million in assistance, USAID documents did
not provide sufficient detail for us to determine that Iraqi minority
groups were among the beneficiaries of all of the projects. Only 1 of
the 155 projects ($66,707 out of $14.8 million) provided sufficient
detail in its documents for us to determine that the assistance was
directed to internally displaced families; however, the location of that
project was outside of the Ninewa plain region. While USAID documents
listed $2 million in funding for a microfinance institution, USAID
officials were unable to provide detail on whether all of these loans
were disbursed in the Ninewa plain region. Third, USAID
officials and documents did not demonstrate that the agency used
unobligated prior year ESF funds to initiate projects in response to
the 2008 directive. USAID could document that the agency used
unobligated prior year funds for two of the six programs after the date
of the 2008 directive. However, according to USAID officials, the agency
did not use unobligated prior year funds for the remaining four
programs.

When you can't produce documentation to back up your claims, you have failed the audit.

Which is bad news for Iraq's minorities and for US taxpayers. Robert Burns (AP) notes
this cost issue from the report, "A contractor was allowed to charge
$80 for a pipe fitting that a competitor was selling for $1.41." There
was no oversight. There will be no oversight. The State Dept will go
before the Congress and make statements about their Afghanistan mission
that will be similar to the statements they made about the Iraq
mission and, unless Congress gets serious about accountability, you will
see the exact same waste and fraud.

The State
Dept is supposed to provide ongoing oversight of their own personnel.
They didn't do that very well and what they found, when they did find
something, usually a great deal of time had passed between the crime or
violation. Laura Litvan (Bloomberg News) reports,
"The agency said work by its investigators and those of other agencies
have resulted in 71 convictions and almost $177 million in fines and
forfeitures. Kickbacks were the leading type of criminal activity,
accounting for 71 percent of indictments, according to the report."

The report notes this background on Iraq::

Iraq
is ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse. Ethnically,
Arabs comprise about 75 percent of the population of Iraq, with Kurds
comprising around 15 percent and other ethnic groups, such as Turkoman
and Assyrians, comprising the remaining 10 percent. Religiously, Shi'a
and Sunni Muslims make up 97 percent of the population of Iraq, with
non-Muslim groups -- such as Baha'i, Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, and
Yazidis -- comprising the remaining 3 percent of the population. Some
communities may be an ethnic majority but a religious minority (such as
Arab Christians), while other communities may be an ethnic minority but a
religious majority (such as Shi'a Shabaks). For the purpose of this
report, we refer to the following religious and ethnic communities as
minority groups: Anglican, Armenian, Assyrian, Baptist, Chaldean,
Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Latin Catholic, Presbyterians, Sabean Mandaean,
Shabak, Syriac, Turkoman, and Yazidi. Since 2003, Iraq's
minority groups have experienced religiously and ethnically motivated
intimidation, arbitrary detention, killings, abductions, and forced
displacements, as well as attacks on holy sites and religious leaders.
In August 2007, coordinated truck bombings killed some 400 Yazidis and
wounded more than 700. In August 2009, a series of attacks in Ninewa
province killed almost 100 and injured more than 400 from the Yazidi,
Shabak, and Turkoman communities. In February 2008, a Chaldean
archbishop was kidnapped and killed -- the third senior Christian
religious figure to be killed in the city of Mosul since 2006. A series
of attacks against Christians occurred in 2010, including an attack in
October on a Catholic church in Baghdad that left more than 50 dead and
60 wounded.

You may notice a major minority group not listed above.

Iraq's
LGBT community. They were not excluded from the 2008 supplemental
directive and the 2010 directive should have allowed for the LGBT
community.

Is the Senate failing (Senate Appropriations Committee) or is USAID?

The
2010 directive specifically was about refugee assistance and that
should have covered the LGBT community. But the US government is not
doing anything to help that community. And they get away with that and
with doing nothing to protect Iraqi LGBTs from being hunted and killed
in Iraq -- "hunted" is the only term for what has repeatedly taken place
-- so at what point does the government get their act together?

Obviously,
not any time soon. Because this failed audit should immediately result
in Senate hearings but you won't get that. The failed audit will be
greeted with a yawn as Democrats in the Senate rush to protect the White
House.

Thing is, the White House should be able to protect itself. It's Iraq's LGBT population that needs protection.

While the US does nothing, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports,
"The Dutch government has decided to grant aslum to gay Iraqis.
Immigration minister Geert Leers says Iraq is no longer safe for
homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders. Mr Leers has already
announced a temporary halt to the deportation of gay Iraqis last month
following an alert from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry
warned that it was impossible to be openly gay anywhere in Iraq without
being at serious risk. The Iraqi authorities also fail to take any
measure to stop discrimination or attacks on homosexuals."

Around
the globe water issues continue to emerge with many warning that the
wars of the 21st century will be resource wars with particular emphasis
on water. Alsumaria reports a
conservation organization held a press conference today in Sulaymaniyah
calling on Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki and Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi to stop the
Austrian company that's constructing a damn for neighboring Turkey which
will interfere with the flow of the Tirgris River into Iraq. In other
water news, Al Mada notes the
Ministry of Water Resources' Muhannad al-Saadi has publicly expressed
concerns about the Mosul dam's structural strength in the case of
earthquakes. Experts have stated that the dam could collapse and
after Mosul was sunk, the waters would flow to Baghdad -- while the
water would not sink Baghdad, they would displace thousands in Baghdad
and surrounding areas. This week, the Ministry of Water Resources noted, "H.E
Minister of Water Resources Eng.Mohanad Al-Sady met the Deputy and
Member of the Iraqi Parliament Falih Al-Sari to discuss means of
providing water shares for arable lands and develop the irrigation and
agricultural aspect in the Governorate. During the meeting, H.E affirmed
that the Ministry of Water Resources is executing several irrigation
projects in all governorates including Al-Muthana governorate and taking
the necessary actions to provide water for arable lands in order to
insure executing the agricultural plan during summer and winter
seasons. The Ministry is about executing Raw Water Transfer Project
through pipes for Al-Muthana Governorate to insure preventing
encroachment over allocated water share to provid water for drinking,
farming and other uses."

Earlier this week, Sylvia Westall (Reuters) reported
on Iraq's art scene, specifically Baghdad where some of the musicians
who fled the country earlier are returning. Westall notes the musical
history. Excerpt.

Several
nights later Tunisian revolutionary singer Emel Mathlouthi performed at
a social club in the capital to an audience of diplomats, Iraqi
officials, students and teachers at a concert organised by the French
Institute.

Tariq
Safa al-Din, the Alwiyah club's president, said it was one of the
largest concerts of this kind at the venue in the past decade. Small
groups perform Iraqi folk music every week in the garden of the club,
founded in 1924.

"This is for the past two years. Before that, you know what it was like in Iraq, nobody used to come to the club," he said.

Mathlouthi's performance was just the beginning of a new era for live music in Baghdad, he said.

She
says her name is Anahita, the 28-years-old voice and vitriol behind
Janaza, which is believed to be Iraq's very first female-fronted,
black-metal band. Allow that notion --Iraq's very first female-fronted,
black-metal band -- to sink in for a moment. Her first recording, Burn the Pages of Quran,
boasts five distorted, primitive tracks that altogether run just shy of
an unlucky 13 minutes. She, along with a handful of other acts hailing
from the Middle East, are repurposing black metal's historically
anti-Christian ferocity to rail against Islam. In doing so, these bands
are serving up anotherexample of how art and dissent can intersect in a region where dissent can sometimes have deadly consequences.

Ed West further argues that Stop the War Coalition's
Lindsey German shouldn't be listened to about Tony Blair because Tony
Blair got move votes than German. Uh, that's not how it works but if Ed
wants to play it that way let's note. 1) Ed West is nothing, a nobody
outside of England. 2) In the US many of us make a point to give
Lindsey our attention with any column, interview or speech and that's
true around the world. Where there are people who've made a point to
oppose the Iraq War, you'll find people who know of Lindsey
German. Repeating, no one knows Ed West globally, no one cares.
Lindsey German? A fine example of citizenship lived fully.

Again, Lindsey's column was run by an Iraqi paper -- not Ed West's column. Andrew Johnson (Islingon Tribune) reports
"a glitzy 500 [pound] a head fundraiser where former Prime Minister
Tony Blair was making his political comeback." Or trying to. But
life's never easy for a War Hawk responsible for over a million deaths.
Lindsey German and others turned out to make sure Tony know that he --
and his crimes -- were not forgotten. Excert.

"The
UN Charter, which this country signed up to, was to save the world from
the scourge of war," he [Bruce Kent] said. "It says that no nation can
go to war or take military action without the decision of the Security
Council, and it can only take that decision after all other measures to
avoid war have been exhausted. That didn't happen in Iraq. It was a
disgrace."

Sabah Jawad, of the Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation Group, told protesters that there were still terrorist attacks in Iraq.

"In
the last few months there have been attacks in Iraq and hundreds of
people have been killed," he said. "This is a legacy of the war in Iraq.
The tragedy of Iraq is still with us and it's going to be with us for
years to come. Our message to Tony Blair is that wherever you go, we're
going to be there to remind you of your murderous history. We're not
going to forget."

Moving over to the US where Bradley Manning's court-martial is scheduled to begin September 21st. Monday April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7, 2010, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported
in August 2010 that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the
Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of
violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his
personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized
software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight
counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified
information." In March, 2011, David S. Cloud (Los Angeles Times) reported
that the military has added 22 additional counts to the charges
including one that could be seen as "aiding the enemy" which could
result in the death penalty if convicted. The Article 32 hearing took
place in December. At the start of this year, there was an Article 32
hearing and, February 3rd, it was announced that the government would be
moving forward with a court-martial. Bradley has yet to enter a plea
and has neither affirmed that he is the leaker nor denied it.

Next
week the soldier and his defense team will be back in military court in
Fort Meade, Maryland, in the latest of a succession of pre-trial
hearings to hammer out the terms of the eventual court martial. Previous
engagements have led to sparky interactions between Coombs and the army
prosecutors seeking to condemn Manning possibly to spending the rest of
his life in military custody.

The
most significant discussion at next week's proceedings will revolve
around the precise legal definition of what "aiding the enemy" means –
specifically its allegation that Manning "knowingly gave intelligence to
the enemy". The judge presiding over Manning's trial, Colonel Denise
Lind, has ruled that the soldier must have had "actual knowledge" that
he was giving intelligence to enemy for the charge to be proven.

Coombs
will next week attempt to gain further clarification that would raise
the legal bar much higher. In his motion he argues that it is a truism
in the age of the internet, any posted material is potentially
accessible to anybody.

AMYGOODMAN:
You are Dr. Jill Stein, so let's talk about healthcare. As Romney
continues to vow to end so-called "Obamacare," the Republican-controlled
House passed a repeal of the measure, but the Democrats in the Senate
say they will not allow this to pass there. Speaking on the House floor,
House Majority Leader—House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Democratic
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi traded barbs over the law.

REP. ERICCANTOR:
We are trying to end the era of Washington-controlled healthcare. We
believe, as do most of the American people, that it's patient-centered
care is our goal. That's where we need to start. We start along the path
towards that goal by repealing Obamacare.

REP. NANCYPELOSI:
American people want us to create jobs. That's what we should be using
this time on the floor for, not on this useless bill to nowhere—bill to
nowhere, that does serious damage to the health and economic well-being
of America's families.

AMYGOODMAN:
That's Nancy Pelosi and Eric Cantor trading barbs on the House floor.
Dr. Jill Stein, interestingly, you are from Massachusetts, from
Lexington, so even as Mitt Romney attacks President Obama over his
healthcare plan, it was very much modeled on Romney's healthcare plan
when he was governor of your state of Massachusetts.

DR. JILLSTEIN:
Exactly, yes, and we've had Romneycare, aka Obamacare, in effect in
Massachusetts for five years. So, there's a track record here. And, you
know, that track record is very problematic. Romneycare, Obamacare,
helped some people, and it hurt other people. It basically pits the very
poor against the near poor. And that's not a solution.

And
this whole debate, I think, misses the point, which is that we can
actually solve this problem. There is also a track record of success:
it's called Medicare. Instead of spending 30 percent of our healthcare
dollar on waste and wasteful insurance bureaucracy and paper pushing, we
can take that 30 percent, squeeze it down to 3 percent—that's what the
overhead is in Medicare—and then use that incredible windfall to
actually expand healthcare and cover everyone. So, you know, Medicare
works. People like it. It's been tampered with, and we need to fix it
and create an improved Medicare, but it actually works, and we have the
track record all over the world, really, of just about every developed
nation.

AMYGOODMAN: So, just dropping the "over 65" from Medicare?

DR. JILLSTEIN: Exactly, right. Let's make it from the point of conception on, you know, that we're basically covered cradle to grave. And --

AMYGOODMAN: How could the U.S. afford that?

DR. JILLSTEIN:
Well, it actually is a money saver. And we know that because of that 30
percent waste, that is part and parcel for our privatized healthcare
system now, 30 percent of your healthcare dollar is paying for those
elaborate forms that you have to fill out, you know, every time your
insurance changes or every time you see a provider. There's a mountain
of minutiae that goes into the tracking of payments. Instead of tracking
who's using what and who pays for it, let's just pay for healthcare,
and let's cover it as a human right.

DR. JILLSTEIN:
Well, Cheri stands out as the leading advocate for poor people, for
justice, for the fight against predatory banks, for the fight against
mortgage foreclosures, fighting on behalf of children most at risk,
fighting for justice and for a fair economy. And Cheri is an incredibly
inspired human being and mother, who was a homeless single mother and
who began to take over empty buildings, saying, "There are buildings
that are -- there are homes that are empty there, and there are people
like me who are sleeping out on the street. What's wrong with this
picture? I'm going to go sleep in that empty home." And, you know,
Cheri's -- Cheri is unstoppable and, I think, exemplifies the fighting
spirit that is alive and well across America that we hope to give voice
to in this campaign, that is what this is about.

AMYGOODMAN: Well, the P word is certainly one that's not really very much talked about --

DR. JILLSTEIN: Exactly.

AMYGOODMAN:
-- by the presidential candidates: "poverty." Cheri Honkala, we're used
to seeing you ahead of marching at the presidential conventions,
marching for poor people's rights in this country, now being chosen as a
vice-presidential candidate. Your feelings today?

CHERIHONKALA:
It's very exciting. I think I'm prepared to take on this challenge. I
was absolutely shocked when I was chosen, but I think it's a real
statement of the Stein campaign. And it meant so much to people across
the entire country. Once the announcement was made, I literally received
hundreds of letters, not just from people in this country but from
folks around the entire world.

AMYGOODMAN: Was it a hard decision to decide to do this?

CHERIHONKALA:
It was definitely the hardest decision I've ever made in my life,
because I have a family out there. And I -- you know, I have two sons,
and they're used to their mother bringing attention to them in the
various different choices that I make. And I asked my 10-year-old,
Guillermo, and he immediately did the happy dance in the living room, so
I knew it was a go.

The
University of Baltimore is across the street from Penn Station
(Amtrak, Maryland Transit trains) and a few blocks to the west on Mt.
Royal Avenue from the University of Baltimore - Mt. Royal Light Rail
station.

The Holiday Inn Inner Harbor is a short half block from the University Center-Baltimore Street Light Rail station.

Thursday, July 12, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, Human Rights
Watch draws attention to a proposed law that could greatly harm Iraqis,
Ammar al-Hakim publicly played Nouri's steady but behind closed doors . .
., Katie Couric's image pops up in Iraq, the White House blusters
about wanting a prisoner (that they turned over to Iraq), and more.

Starting with sports, today Emily Alpert (Los Angeles Times) reports
an important event, "For the first time in Olympic history, every
country will have a woman competing on its team, including longtime
holdout Saudi Arabia, the International Olympic Committee announced
Thursday. Brunei and Qatar will also send female athletes to the London
Games for the first time." Alsumaira notes
Iraq will be sending 8 athletes to the Olympics in London and the goal
of the Iraqi team is participation in the sport and to gain knowledge
for future Olympic competitions according to Samir al-Moussawi who is
over the team which will compete in the 100 meter run (Dania Hussein),
the 800 meter run (Adnan Taas), shooting (Nour Amer), crossbow (Rana
al-Mashadani), weighlifting (Safa Rashed), swimming (Muhannad Ahmad --
and I'm saying the rest of this parenthetical not Alsumaria, Muhannad
Ahmad is gathering a lot of talk as the Arab male athlete to watch in
this year's competition -- and only some of that talk is due to Ahmad's
good looks), boxing (Ahmed Abdel-Karim) and wreslting (Ali Nazim). Iraqi Olympic Committee notes that Safa Rashed has been at a Ukrainian training camp for weight lifters since June.

Lara Spencer: And we start with
Katie Couric. Her mega-watt is being
seen an unlikely place. She's become the poster child, if you will, for the
Iraqi Electricity Ministry to cool people's impatience over the lack of
electrical power in the country. But is it working? One Iraqi local told the
New York Times, "It doesn't give me hope about
electricity. But I do like to see her beautiful face." Popping
in to talk about it is Katie Couric herself. Hi,
Katie.

Katie Couric [via phone line]: Hello, Lara. How are you?

Lara Spencer: I'm great. And I'm looking at your mega-watt smile.
Can you tell us -- Can you tell us how this happened?

Katie Couric [via phone line]: Well Lara, as you recall, we
actually broke the story during the pop news segment of GMA [Good
Morning America] a few months ago when I was filling in for Robin Roberts.

Lara Spencer: I do recall.

Katie Couric: So actually, we did break the story and, sadly, the
New York Times is once again following GMA.

Lara Spencer: That's right. We have scooped the New York
Times.

Katie Couric: I thought it was really weird so we got a translator
to translate it and they said, "It's a billboard for the local utility
company."

Lara Spencer: And, hey, it's good promotion for your upcoming
show.

Katie Couric's upcoming show is Katie, set to debut September 10th, a syndicated daily (Monday through Friday), hour long talk show with a studio audience.

Lara Spencer: Just how high wattage is our guest host Katie
Couric? Well this is a billboard in Iraq Tweeted by a reporter there
and it turns out, there it is, and it turns out it's a public service
announcement by Iraq's Electricity Ministry. It says, "Daily
Electricity Bulletin" which -- ironically, Katie -- is what we were
thinking of renaming the show this week.

Katie Couric: Somebody sent that to me on Twitter and they said, "I think this is your face on this bulletin board."

Katie Couric has a very nice smile. And if you were the Minister of
Electricity in Iraq, you might latch onto it. Right about now is when
the person -- all men so far -- in this position usually steps down and
usually because of public outcry over the fact that there is no
improvement in providing Iraqis with electricity. While the average
minister serves all four years of their term, the Minister of the
Electricity is far more likely to just serve two years.

At least four times a day, Hadi Ahmed leaves his Baghdad home and goes out into the sweltering heat to restart his generator.

"We are dying in this heat," he says. "I feel like every day
this country is going backwards. The lack of electricity is destroying
my business."

Mr Ahmed spends about US$3,000 (Dh11,018) a month producing
electricity to power a plastics factory that manufactures household
items. He says he can afford to operate the factory at only a third of
capacity.

"Out of six machines, because of the current circumstances, I only have two operational," said Mr Ahmed.

Still on the energy issue, over the weekend AFP reported,
"Iraqi Kurdistan has begun sending oil produced in its three-province
autonomous region out of the country without the express permission of
the central government, an official said on Sunday." UPI states
the Turkish government is seeking the same sort of deal from the
Baghdad-central government and "Ankara's maneuvering is also interwoven
with Turkey's drive to restore itself as the region's paramount power,
which puts it in direct competition with Iran." Trend News Agency notes
that Turkey and the KRG border one another but that they have not had a
history of cooperation. What changed? Nouri went wacko and began
charging the Turkish government with all these accusations. He took a
working relationship he had with the Turkish government and destroyed
it. Meanwhile, the KRG and Turkey have grown closer. Nouri's own
lunacy helped facilitate that.

It is no secret that the majority of Kurds, if not in fact, all
of them, would love to see an independent Kurdistan. And the easiest way
for a Kurdish politician to become popular is to call for an
independent state.

Although the Kurdish president, Massoud Barzani, has recently
given the impression that he wants to see an independent Iraqi
Kurdistan, the political party to which he belongs, the Kurdish
Democratic Party (KDP), and the other major political party in the area,
the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), have so far resisted similar
temptations. In fact, most Kurdish politicians are still talking about a
"united Iraq" despite Kurdish public opinion against this idea.

And they have a point. If you are a Kurdish politician and you
need to maintain diplomatic relations with your neighbours, and if
you're aware of the economic and political realities for Iraqi
Kurdistan, then it's very hard to call for Kurdish independence and
really mean it.

It is possible that Iraqi Kurdistan is politically mature enough
to be independent – but the region is not ready for such a step in
economic or military terms. And it is true that, over time, the
political consequences of Kurdish independence have always been
considered greater than the economic consequences. But that no longer
applies.

The draft bill calls for up to 10 years in prison and closing a
publication for vaguely worded offenses such as "portraying the prophets
inappropriately." It is expected to be voted on in the near future.

The legislation came about after the publication of an article
in May 2010 that was an imaginary discussion with God that included
profanity. Outrage over the article boiled into rioting that caused
property damage and led to arrests and injuries.

Because it was an apparent response to a free speech issue,
there were concerns that the bill would also limit free speech.
Estabrooks says, "Basher Hadad, the head of the committee that's
drafting this bill in Iraq, has told different news services that this
is not going to be any kind of censorship," but he believes that's a
total front.

By the vague nature of the bill's wording, it will do exactly
that, even though people are assured that they will still be free to
criticize mullahs, scholars, Islam, or the history of Islam. Estabrooks
says,

Iraq's government is in the process of enacting what it refers to as
an Information Crimes Law to regulate the use of information networks,
computers, and other electronic devices and systems. The proposed law
had its first reading before Iraq's Council of Representatives on July
27, 2011; a second reading is expected as early as July 2012. As
currently drafted, the proposed legislation violates international
standards protecting due process, freedom of speech and freedom of
association.

This is not a minor point and HRW connects the law with the broader attack on liberties taking place in Iraq:

Since February 2011, Human Rights Watch has documented often
violent attacks by Iraqi security forces and gangs, apparently acting
with the support of the Iraqi government, against peaceful demonstrators
demanding human rights, better services, and an end to corruption.
During nationwide demonstrations on February 25, 2011, for example,
security forces killed at least 12 protesters across the country and
injured more than 100. Iraqi security forces beat unarmed journalists
and protesters that day, smashing cameras and confiscating memory
cards. On June 10 in Baghdad, government-backed gangs armed with wooden
planks, knives, iron pipes, and other weapons beat and stabbed peaceful
protesters and sexually molested female demonstrators as security
forces stood by and watched, sometimes laughing at the victims. Given
this backdrop, the draft Information Crimes Law appears to be part of a
broad effort to suppress peaceful dissent by criminalizing legitimate
activities involving information sharing and networking. Iraq's Council
of Representatives should insist that the government significantly
revise the proposed Information Crimes Law to conform to the
requirements of international law, and the council should reject its
passage into law in its present form. Without substantial revison, the
proposed legislation would sharply undercut both freedom of expression
and association.

Further in, the report notes:

Among other things, the law threatens life imprisonment and large
fines for those found guilty of "inflaming sectarian tensions or
strife;" "defaming the country;" "[u]ndermining the independence, untiy,
or safety of the country, or its supreme economic, political,
military, or security interests;" or "[p]ublishing or broadcasting false
or misleading events for the purpose of weakening confidence in the
electronic financial system, electronic commercial or financial
documents, or similar things, or damaging the national economy and
financial confidence in the state." The law also imposes imprisonment
and a fine on anyone who "encroaches on any religious, moral, family, or
social values or principles," or "[c]reates, administers, or helps to
create . . . any programs, information, photographs, or films that
infringe on probity or public morals or advocate or propagate such
things."

And let's point out this under Thug Nouri. Nouri who sued the Guardian newspaper
in England because he didn't like their story on him where some
officials were talking about his power grabs. Nouri who has tried to
shut down press outlets repeatedly -- most recently wanting to close a
list of outlets -- which included the BBC -- because they didn't have
the correct 'papers.'

Let's remember this is Nouri al-Maliki, Little Saddam.

The man who had barely become prime minister in 2006 before he was
stating that reporters covering bombings were terrorists and tried to
stop all coverage of violence in the country. It's a detail that so
many of the foreign (non-Iraqi) press overlooks today -- probably
because they were covering something else (another country, another
beat) in 2006. This is the thug who has repeatedly targeted one news
outlet after another. One example, dropping back to November 2, 2011:

In other news, Iraq continues its crackdown on a free press. Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reports:On
Monday, the Iraqi Communication and Media Commission accused
al-Baghdadiya television of having a link to the church kidnappers and
ordered the station to close, state television reported. Iraqi security
forces surrounded the bureau of al-Baghdadiya TV in Baghdad.Two
of the station's employees were detained, according to a statement
posted on the al-Baghdadiya TV website. It said the two employees had
received a call from the church kidnappers demanding the release of
female prisoners in Egypt in return for the hostages' freedom. The
demand was later broadcast on al-Baghdadiya TV.The station, which which is an Iraqi-owned, Egypt-based network, subsequently reported that its employees had been released.Daily News World adds:

Al-Baghdadia, the TV station in Baghdad
that said it was contacted by gunmen during Sunday's church hostage
drama, has been taken off air.It stopped transmitting shortly after its building was taken over, reportedly by a large number of government troops.The station says its director and another employee have been charged with terrorism-related offences. [. . .]Al-Baghdadia – an independent station
based in Egypt – says its public hotline number was phoned by the gunmen
who requested it broadcast the news that they wanted to negotiate. As the station was being taken over, it
broadcast pictures of security forces surrounding the building, before
the screen went blank. Transmission then resumed from al-Baghdadia's
Cairo studio. The station says its office in Basra has also been taken
over by security forces.It has called a sit-in at the building and appealed to local and foreign media to attend in soldidarity.

Reporters Without Borders condemns yesterday's decision by the
Iraqi authorities to close the Baghdad, Kerbala and Basra bureaux of
Cairo-based satellite TV station Al-Baghdadia in connection with its
coverage of the previous day's hostage-taking in a Baghdad church, which
ended in a bloodbath.

Two of the station's employees, producer Haidar Salam and video
editor Mohammed Al-Johair, were arrested under article 1/2/4 of the
anti-terrorism law. Al-Johair was released today, after being held
overnight, but Salam is still being held in an unknown location,
Reporters Without Borders has learned from Al-Baghdadia representatives
in Egypt.

That's Nouri and it takes the world's attention to stop him. Grasp
that. Grasp that if this bill becomes a law, as bad as Iraq is now, it
will get a lot worse. Let's also remember this is Nouri who is waiting
for the current Parliament to finish its term so he can use one MP and
this is also the same Thug Nouri who tried to have Deputy Prime Minister
Saleh al-Mutlaq stripped of his post for saying Nouri was becoming a
dictator.

The Human Rights Watch report notes that it threatens all Iraqis -- all Iraqis
and yet the news cycle is obsessed with one defector today --
journalists, activists, everyone due to it being vaguely written and due
to the harsh punishments proposed. It would threaten and intimidate
free speech, a major issue in a society already struggling against a
government that seems allergic to openess.

Ammar al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, continues his visit in Iran meeting with various dignitaries. Ahlul Byat News Agency reports he met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Press TV notes he met with Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani. One wonders what they talked about.

His desire to oust Nouri al-Maliki? His push for a no-confidence vote?

In spite of Ammar acting as if he was going steady with Nouri al-Maliki,
a new interview reveals that, privately, Ammar was less than supportive
of Nouri. Rudaw interviews
the Kurdistan Democratic Party's spokesperson Jaafar Ibrahim. KDP is
President Massoud Barzani's political party. As they discuss the
ongoing political crisis, Ibrahim offers some interesting revelations.
Asked if possibly the no-confidence vote was floated too soon, Ibrahim
declares they weren't the ones bringing it up, that Shi'ites were when
they came to the KRG, "For example, Ammar Hakim was the first to
complain about the dysfunction of the Baghdad government." He repeats
this later in the interview noting again, "Mr. Ammar Hakim was here in
Kurdistan and was complaining." And is the effort to withdraw
confidence from Nouri over? "Attempts are ongoing," Ibrahim notes.

Meanwhile Alsumaria notes
the Sadr bloc is backing a bill to limit the three presidencies --
Prime Minister, President of Iraq and Speaker of Parliament -- to two
sessions and, in a press conference today, MP Baha al-Araji discussed
it. He was joined by independent MP Sabah al-Saadi who has already
noted that such a change would be done by law in Parliament and does not
require a Constitutional amendment.

All Iraqi News notes
that MP Sabah al-Saadi also told the press that the judiciary has been
polticized, that in the past it was a slave to Saddam Hussein and that
today it is a slave to someone else. He means, but does not say, Nouri
al-Maliki. The article notes he's talking about Nouri but none of the
quotes have him naming Nouri. All Iraqi News also notes that National Alliance held a meeting yesterday to discuss the political crisis.

The Reform Committee is a lot like the earlier call for a national
council -- a lot of meetings get held but nothing is accomplished.

Alsumaria reports
that a corpse was discovered outside Tikrit. The man was feed shop
owner and the body had multiple gunshot wounds. In addition, Alsumaria notes
a Babylon attack on the home of an Awakening (Sahwa, Sons of
Iraq/Daughters of Iraq) and four members of his family were also shot
dead, a Kirkuk bombing claimed the life of 1 police officer with two
more injured and a Salah al-Din attack left one truck driver injured.
Through Wednesday, Iraq Body Count counts 151 dead from violence in Iraq so far this month.

But don't worry, the same Nation magazine that once railed
against the undercounting of Iraqi deaths, the one that grandstanded --
remember? -- will allow their Lyndon LaRouche refugee to undercount the
deaths as he did this week. The United Nations may say over 400 died
but that's not good enough for The Nation magazine, you
understand. The rag that used to be outraged by the refusal to pay
attention to the Lancet study finding over one million Iraqis had died
in the Iraq War now proves what a cheap and whorish rag it is by joining
in the undercount because The Nation only really opposed wars today when a Republican occupies the White House.

Turning to England and other liars. Ed West can't grow a man's beard
and he also apparently struggles with honesty which would explain this nonsense at the Telegraph:

But one thing Blair is not is a war criminal. Iraq was a
dreadful mistake, a mistake that cost thousands of American and British
lives, and the lives of between 100,000 and 150,000 Iraqis, and
strengthened the most hostile power in the region (not to mention driving out Iraq's Christian population).
But it was not illegal, nor was it opportunist on Blair's part; people
forget that the prime minister was not jumping on the 9/11 bandwagon,
but had been rooting to remove Saddam since 1997.

Which would be Blair using the tragedy of 9-11 to get the war he'd
always wanted (Iraq was not involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks
on the US).

2) exploiting opportunities with little regard to principle or consequences

Which would be Blair -- the alleged Christian whose illegal war drove
Christians out of Iraq. We can provide tons of examples on the second
definition but that does it. Tony pretends to be pious and envoke's a
deity's name repeatedly in public -- in a manner that the UK hasn't seen
to that degree from a prime minister in the last 100 years and yet for
all his lofty Christian ideals, the Christians and Iraq suffer because
of what Tony Blair did. Suffer and die.

He's a war criminal.

Ed West further argues that Stop the War Coalition's
Lindsey German shouldn't be listened to about Tony Blair because Tony
Blair got move votes than German. Uh, that's not how it works but if Ed
wants to play it that way let's note. 1) Ed West is nothing, a nobody
outside of England. 2) In the US many of us make a point to give
Lindsey our attention with any column, interview or speech and that's
true around the world. Where there are people who've made a point to
oppose the Iraq War, you'll find people who know of Lindsey
German. Repeating, no one knows Ed West globally, no one cares.
Lindsey German? A fine example of citizenship lived fully. Lindsey German had a Guardian column on Tony Blair.

Five years after he left Downing Street, Tony Blair's attempted comeback
to political life shows how little he understands about what went wrong
with his career, and about the level of opposition to him that still
remains.He has planned a series of fundraising events to facilitate
his return to grace, including an "in conversation" with Tessa Jowell
and a £500-a-head dinner alongside Ed Miliband tomorrow. Jowell had to
hastily cancel her appearance for fear of demonstrations. Tonight's Blair event at Arsenal's Emirates stadium in north London will be met by protests organised by the Stop the War coalition over his role in the Iraq war.It
appears that his old friend and partner in crime, Alastair Campbell,
will be there. While we have to assume that those attending will not
choke on their dinners, many Labour members and voters will find all
this too much to stomach.

From England and Iraq to the US and Iraq. Ali Mussa Daqduq is someone
that I believe likely killed 5 Americans and 4 British citizens. There
are probably others as well. But my "likely" doesn't matter. A court
of law makes that decision. As December 2011 approached and the US
government prepared to pull most US troops out of Iraq, Republicans and
Democrats in Congress began asking the White House about Ali Mussa
Daqduq who was then in US custody. Many Republicans were vocal that the
US should keep him in custody and try him in the US, in a military
court, at Guantanamo or somewhere. As with the leases and everything
else about Iraq, the Barack Obama administration bungled it. They
handed him over to the Iraqis.

Once that happened, that was the end of it. The White House played
idiot and insisted they had promises that Ali Mussa Daqduq would be
prosecuted and, though he might not be found guilty in the death of the 5
Americans, he could be busted for entering Iraq 'illegally.' What a
comfort to the families of the fallen. (That was sarcasm.)

So Iraq tried him. And said he was innocent of all charges. The US
government whined and moaned and the verdict was appealed. The appeals
court rendered a not-guilty verdict. Moqtada al-Sadr has called for
Daqduq to be released. US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said
Daqduq should continue to be held.

Who's right?

I like Leon but he's wrong. I agree there is no 'justice' in the Iraqi
'justice' system. But the US handed him over and knew he would be tried
by Iraqi courts. When that happened and he was twice found not guilty,
that was the end of the story. He needs to be set free.

I am very sorry that the families did not see justice. I'm very sorry
that Barack Obama traded others involved in the killings (he let go the
head of the League of Righteous and others who were involved in this
attack -- let them go in the summer of 2009 from US prisons and did so
-- as they would reveal themselves -- because he wanted the 5 kidnapped
British citizens released by the League). I'm sorry that American lives
mattered so little to Barack Obama. I'm sorry that he wants to
grandstand on the backs of US service members after releasing the
ringleaders involved in killing 5 Americans.

But at this point, it's too late. The legal system is followed or it
isn't. The US is interfering with Iraqi law and the legal system. Not
to try to save someone from being executed but to try to prevent someone
from being released. If Barack didn't want him released, he should
have kept in US custody. Barack chose not to and the man was turned
over to Iraq. He's now stood in trial twice. He was found not guilty.
By the rule of the law, he's free. I don't like it, I don't think it's
fair, but it's the law.

And think about the message that the US sends when they ask Iraqi to continue to hold a man twice found innocent.

My heart goes out to the families of the fallen but when Barack made the
choice to release Daqduq to Iraqi custody, it became a matter for the
Iraqis. Now Barack doesn't like their decision and wants a do-over.

That's not how it works.

Lara Jakes and Qassim abdul-Zahra (AP) report
that Antony Blinken -- Vice President Joe Biden's national security
adviser -- states that the US wants Daqduq to be hld and that they not
only want to see him extradited to the US, they've already made that
request. They also note, "Abdul-Sattar
Bayrkdar, spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council said the
appeals court ruling is final and there are no charges pending against
Daqduq. Ali al-Moussawi, media adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki, said he was unaware of any U.S. request to extradite Daqduq."

As a physician, what is your response to the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the president's health care bill?

Stein: It's very problematic. I think the Supreme Court's
decision destroys the most useful part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -
that is the Medicaid extension. We have a track record here. We don't
have to just guess what he impact of the ACA will be. We already have it
in Massachusetts, where I live. We've already had it for five years. It
has not been a solution. The cost of health care continues to
skyrocket.
On the other hand we have a real track record of what does work. It's
called national health insurance, Medicare for all. We actually achieve
health and we do it in a way that provides health care to everyone at
less than half the cost per person. We know that under Medicare for all,
we would be saving trillions of dollars over the next decade because it
eliminates the wasteful health insurance bureaucracy and it stabilizes
medical inflation. This is the way to go.

You have a "Green New Deal" to employ "every American willing and able
to work." Is this your economic plan? And how do you plan to do it?

Stein: By using our tax dollars instead of to provide a stimulus package
that's predominately tax breaks for corporations, instead we use a
comparable amount of money and put it into the direct creation of jobs.
And again, this is not a hypothetical idea. It's based on a plan that
helped markedly to get us out of the Great Depression of the 1930s. This
would not be a cookie cutter, top-down Washington-controlled program.
Rather it would be nationally funded but locally controlled where by
communities decide what kinds of jobs they need to become sustainable.
It would create jobs in what we think of as the Green economy, but it
would also create jobs meeting our social needs - hiring back teaches,
nurses, after-school care [providers], violence prevention.

Stein is the presumptive nominee. The candidate will be announced at the Green Party's national
convention which kicks off tomorrow in Baltimore.

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About Me

I'm Michael, Mike to my friends. College student working his way through. I'm also Irish-American and The New York Times can kiss my Irish ass. And check out Trina's Kitchen on my links, that's my mother's site.